Labor Department Won’t Release U.S. Payrolls Report Tomorrow

The U.S. Department of Labor headquarters stands in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Department of Labor won’t
issue the September payrolls report tomorrow as initially
scheduled because of the partial government shutdown now in its
third day.

An alternative date for the employment report, usually
released on the first Friday of each month at 8:30 a.m., hasn’t
been scheduled, the department said in a statement today in
Washington. The release includes the unemployment rate and data
on payroll employment.

The report is the most prominent among the data releases
issued by federal government agencies that have been canceled as
workers deemed non-essential are furloughed. A meeting between
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders yesterday
failed to break the budget logjam that has led to the first
shutdown since 1996.

During the lapse in appropriations, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics “will not collect data, issue reports or respond to
public inquiries,” according to its website. The agency “will
continue to assess the situation” during a shutdown, Labor
Department spokesman Steve Barr said earlier this week.

The jobs report is closely watched for clues to Federal
Reserve policy and the health of the economy. The central bank
has said it will keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for
at least as long as the unemployment rate exceeds 6.5 percent
and the outlook for inflation is no more than 2.5 percent.

Payrolls Forecast

Employers probably added 180,000 workers to payrolls in
September, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg
survey of economists. That would be the biggest gain in five
months. The jobless rate is forecast to hold at 7.3 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release of the
December 1995 employment report during a partial government
shutdown that stretched from Dec. 15, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996. The
report was released on Jan. 19, 1996.

Data on weekly jobless claims, issued today by the
Employment and Training Administration, will continue to be
released during a shutdown, the department has said. First-time
claims for unemployment benefits rose by 1,000 to 308,000 in the
week ended Sept. 28, from a revised 307,000, today’s report
showed.

The U.S. Commerce Department has suspended the release of
economic data provided by its agencies. Reports on construction
spending, factory orders, retail sales and gross domestic
product are all issued by agencies within the department.

Livestock Reports

Crop and livestock reports from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture have also been suspended. The National Agricultural
Statistics Service won’t issue reports while employees are
furloughed, according to spokeswoman Sue King. Reports suspended
include those detailing global supply and demand for
agricultural commodities, she said.

Data supplied by private organizations, including today’s
Institute for Supply Management non-manufacturing index, aren’t
affected. The index dropped to a three-month low of 54.4 from
the prior month’s 58.6, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said
today.

The services report contributed to a drop in stock prices
amid concern that a partial government shutdown will curb
economic growth. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.7
percent to 1,681.54 at 3:43 p.m. in New York.